(Off-site) Dorothy Day: Her Life and the Works of Mercy Today - with Martha Hennessy

This talk will focus on the life and legacy of Dorothy Day, her conversion to Catholicism and her daily faith practice, her work and her connections to Staten Island, the beginnings of the Catholic Worker movement, and the application of the works of mercy and houses of hospitality today.

About the Speaker

Martha Hennessy, the seventh grandchild of Dorothy Day, divides her time between the family farm in Vermont and practicing the works of mercy at Maryhouse Catholic Worker in New York City. She travels extensively across the country to speak about her grandmother Dorothy Day’s life, her work in community, Catholic Social Teaching, war and peace, nuclear abolition, and peacemaking efforts in the tradition of her grandmother and the Catholic Worker movement.

A retired occupational therapist and grandmother of nine, she has traveled to Russia, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Korea, and Palestine to understand the impact of US foreign military policy and its effects on countries and families around the world. As a result of her activism here at home, she has been arrested and jailed for protesting war, nuclear power/weapons, the use of drones, and the plight of prisoners in Guantanamo and US prisons.

Free with R.S.V.P.

*Note: This is an off-site event, located at:

The Noble Maritime Collection

1000 Richmond, Building D

Staten Island, NY 10301, USA

This lecture is part of the program In the Spirit of Tara: A Celebration of Five Women Who Left a Lasting Legacy – Dorothy Day, Audre Lorde, Frances Perkins, Pauli Murray and Alice Austen,  funded by a NY City Council Discretionary Initiative.